By Jeff Proctor
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque police officers have gotten slower in responding to top-priority calls, taking nearly 10 minutes from the time someone calls 911 to when an officer arrives.
Average response times for “Priority 1" calls, which include such calls as shootings, stabbings, car wrecks with injuries and most domestic violence incidents, have risen nearly a minute in the past two years, from 8 minutes 43 seconds in fiscal year 2010 to 9 minutes 42 seconds in the last fiscal year that ended June 30.
The response times are included in the city budget as a performance measure for APD.
Police union officials called the increase a “service issue,” said it is “unacceptable” and pointed to an increase in the volume of calls and a drop in the number of officers as a possible explanation.
“First and foremost, my job is to serve the public,” said Greg Weber, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association. “If a person is calling 911 for an emergency, the last thing that person wants to see is the officer arriving later than he should.
“Why exactly is that happening? I don’t know all the reasons, but we can theorize that because there are fewer officers on the streets and call volume is going up, it’s going to take us longer to get there.”
Police Chief Ray Schultz downplayed the increase in response times.
Schultz, who has used response times as a catalyst for changing policies and as a measure of his department’s effectiveness in the past, said Tuesday that too much stock has been placed in the amount of time that passes between a call to police for service and an officer’s arrival.
“One of the worst things we did as law enforcement is tracking those response times, because response times aren’t necessarily a good indicator,” the chief said, adding that his discussions with other members of national law enforcement think tanks are focused on an over-emphasis on response times.
Besides, Schultz said, officers are getting to the “most important, life-safety calls” in a timely fashion. For example: between Jan. 1 and July 18, APD officers were taking an average 6 minutes 38 seconds to respond to robbery, shooting and stabbing calls combined. That’s down from 7 minutes 14 seconds last year, and is exactly the same as in 2010.
The chief said he’s considering moving APD from a three-priority system for service calls to a five- or six-priority system. Under such a change, only the most important calls — “the ones where we have lights and sirens blazing and we’re running red lights” — would be categorized as priority one.
Union spokesman Ron Olivas said the 59-second increase since 2010 in priority one response times — regardless of which calls fall within the category — amounts to a decrease in the level of service that APD is providing.
“A minute can be an absolute lifetime for citizens,” Olivas said. “That goes for car wrecks, domestic violence calls and burglaries, too. What about when someone comes home and finds the burglar still in their house?”
Changes at APD
Response times for priority one calls have risen nearly 20 percent since fiscal year 2004. During that same time period, the number of priority one calls APD sends officers to has gone up more than 70 percent, from 34,944 in fiscal 2003 to 59,789 last fiscal year.
Every fiscal year from 2004 to 2008, response times went up.
In early 2008, Schultz directed a team to look for ways to get the times down. And a round that same time, APD was starting to approach then-Mayor Martin Chavez’s declared goal of 1,100 sworn police officers at the department.
Schultz had the department switch to five eight-hour shifts per week from four 10-hour shifts in an effort to bring down response times. APD also improved its 911 dispatch center and, in 2009, opened a sixth area command to address the problem.
The efforts paid off, and in fiscal year 2009, priority one response times dropped 13 seconds. It was the first reduction in years, and in fiscal 2010, priority one call responses reached a five-year low of 8 minutes 43 seconds.
Schultz touted the decrease and attributed it to, among other things, an increase in manpower and the shift changes, which were unpopular among police officers. Graveyard shift officers went back to four 10-hour shifts in 2009.
But in fiscal 2011, priority one responses had gone back up to 9 minutes 17 seconds.
Weber said in an interview Tuesday that the number of officers bidding for jobs “in the field” — meaning they respond to calls for service — dropped to 474 in 2011 from 497 the previous year.
Priority one response times increased again for the fiscal year that ended June 30 — this time to 9 minutes 42 seconds. And again, the number of officers bidding for jobs on the streets had gone down — to 452.
As of Tuesday, the number stood at 443, Weber said, and 20 of those were either out with injuries, on desk duty, or not responding to calls for other reasons.
In September 2009, APD had a total of 1,094 sworn police officers. As of Tuesday, that number stood at 1,014, Schultz said, with another 20 or more set to retire at the end of this year.
“There’s a clear line there: response times were going down when the number of bidded officers was going up,” Weber said. “The number of officers in the field continues to shrink; the number of total sworn officers continues to shrink. That makes no sense when the call volume continues to increase.
“When he was running for election, Mayor (Richard) Berry said he will not reduce service in public safety, no matter what. Clearly we have a reduction in manpower, and it could very well be leading to a reduction in service.”
Schultz said APD is funded for 1,100 sworn positions for fiscal 2013. There are 11 officers in the current academy class.
Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal